Sex and Gender

• Sex

  Sex refers to a person's biological status as either male or female determined by chromosomes and hormones causing anatomical variation
• Gender

  a person's psychological status as either masculine or feminine

  attitudes and behaviours heavily influenced by social roles and is fluid so subject to change
• Gender Dysphoria

  For the majority of people, sex and gender correspond

  Some people experience incongruence and elect to have gender reassignment surgery to bring sex in line with gender identity
• Sex-Role stereotypes

  no obvious reason for tasks and roles to be exclusively male or female in society

  sex-role stereotypes - shared set of expectations people within a society or culture hold for what is acceptable for men and women's behaviour

  transmitted through society and reinforced by parents, peers, the media and institutions eg school
• Sex Role Stereotypes A03

  Smith and Lloyd 1978 - dressed 4-6 month old babies half the time as girls and half the time as boys - finding adults gave stereotypically 'boys' toys when presenting masculine and vice versa

  shows reinforcement by parents from an early age

  Furnham and Farragher - content analysis of TV adverts found males in professional roles and females in household roles

  Shows roles are reinforced and transmitted by media